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Characters

The main cast, the people who recur, and everyone else the books name. Through book 3.

The party

The supporting cast

The people the story keeps coming back to.

With them from the start

Recurring

Present in three or more of the books read, by how often.

Everyone else

Everyone else the books name, grouped by the book that first names them. Open a book, or type a name.

Book 1 — Dungeon Crawler Carl 15
  • Ferdinand — Someone Donut loved from the moment she first saw him, whom she invokes on her deathbed after the Juicer and in her drunken confession under the Krakaren, and ranks above Carl. Carl asks, 'Who the hell is Ferdinand?' She will not say.
  • Jack this book only — A Meadow Lark resident in a Cincinnati Bengals hat who pokes the women and asks 'You still alive, Marybeth?' He urinates on a dungeon wall on the second floor after the system has announced that doing so summons a Rage Elemental.
  • Mrs. Parsons this book only — Carl's first-floor neighbour, leaning out of her window to complain about the howling cat when the building is crushed. She is the first person he watches die.
  • Mukta this book only — The Admin who substitutes for Zev during her suspension, overrides her booking, and puts Carl and Donut on the Maestro's show with the words 'You seem to be under the impression that you have a say in this, crawler.'
  • Ralph this book only — Level 11 Neighborhood Boss: a frenzied gerbil, champion of the kobold fighting pits, whose mouth opens as wide as a dingo's. Swallowed by a freed dingo, blown out of it, stunned, and smushed under Carl's bare foot.
  • Randall this book only — A Meadow Lark resident with a walker who pushes into the boss arena to see if the kids are all right; killed beside Yolanda by the Rage Elemental.
  • Rebecca W this book only — A level-3 crawler with a koi-and-crane sleeve tattoo, found naked and dead against a wall 200 metres from a safe room with an apple core in her inventory and Killed by Crawler Frank Q over her corpse. Frank's story makes her a human trafficker; the Maestro's footage shows she was just afraid.
  • Rory and Lorelai this book only — Two level-7 goblin shamankas — one pierced fifty times, one in a bone necklace — whom Donut charms into tears and a chopper by asking whether the piercings are a daddy thing. They start a meth war with the llamas on her word.
  • Tally this book only — Bopca Protector of the first safe room Carl and Donut find, a hairy, motionless gnome in a paper hat with a Slavic accent who makes the best vindaloo Carl has ever eaten, special-orders salmon for Her Highness, and explains what happened to the last planet the Squim Conglomerate ran.
  • The Ball of Swine this book only — Level 15 Borough Boss: thirty tuskling knights and courtesans fused by war magic into a rolling sphere of flesh that guards the stairwell to floor two. Popped like a balloon by the Speedbump, then slaughtered in their tuxedos and gowns.
  • The Hoarder this book only — Level 7 Neighborhood Boss: a fifteen-foot woman in PINK sweatpants buried in a room of garbage, vomiting Scatterers, begging in Spanish to be sent to Jesus. Carl beats her to death with his fists and a dog leash, and never forgets it.
  • The Juicer this book only — Level 9 Neighborhood Boss: a troglodyte fused with a bodybuilder, curling in a gym boss room and throwing flaming weight plates. 'Bro, I need a spot, bro.' Donut opens his neck vein and nearly dies of it.
  • The Rage Elemental this book only — Level 93 penalty mob summoned by urinating on a dungeon wall, a six-legged badger skull in purple smoke that dissipates only after 666 souls. Kills Yolanda and Randall, besieges a chicken restaurant for most of a day, and is lured into a stairwell to dissolve.
  • Yolanda Martinez this book only — Yolanda Martinez 13, a four-foot-eleven CNA from Meadow Lark with a bow and a quiver that drags on the floor. She is the one who has to shoot Jack. She dies standing over Randall when the Rage Elemental comes, and the book stops to give her an obituary.
  • Yvette this book only — Frank and Maggie's teenage daughter, who wept in the tutorial guild, refused the gun her mother put in her hand, hid under Maggie's stealth field in the safe room, and was hurt by Carl's rat-corpse trap before her mother strangled her.
Book 2 — Carl's Doomsday Scenario 26
  • Apollon the Mighty this book only — The circus strongman, an ogre Elite with a vine growing from his neck, who sells cones of writhing white worms — 'Iced Cream' — from a stand in the big top. Carl eats one. His face is the middle head of Signet's three-headed ogre tattoo.
  • Burgundy this book only — A dark-haired human clerk with one blue eye and one brown, who wishes Carl luck on the magistrate's stairs — and is, by night, a krasue: a woman lured from another town with the promise of work at the Desperado Club, twisted by Remex, and cursed. She gives Carl the truth from the wreckage with her legs burned to charcoal and asks Donut to kill her while she is still mortal.
  • Clarabelle — The crocodilian on the Desperado Club's door, a level-40 employee who recognises Mordecai in any body — 'You know that disguise can't fool me' — and wants Mongo kept in his carrier.
  • Eklund this book only — A game guide in the skyfowl town, Mordecai's old friend, 'too smart for his own good,' who tells him the name of the program Carl has walked into: Vengeance of the Daughter.
  • Eunice and Ricky Joe this book only — The family next door to the elves' temple: Eunice, a level-30 Fathom Dwarf, heavily pregnant mother of fifteen, who takes a rolling pin to the elf whose spell bounced a rock off her boy's head and goes into labour that evening; and Ricky Joe, level 2, who ties his pet salamander Benjamin to a stick, punches a velociraptor, and loses his arm to Mongo, who swallows it along with Benjamin, eaten for the second time, and gives it back when Ricky Joe demands it.
  • Fitz this book only — The fat, bald, level-30 human on the sign of the One-Eyed Narwhal and behind its bar, who has never had royalty in the Narwhal, strokes the photo of Bea, weeps for GumGum, trades free rooms for Hair-of-the-Dog potions, and raises the night patrol against a lich that isn't one.
  • Gordo this book only — Bopca Protector of the Belly-Rubbed Pug, who has to ask Mordecai to sheath his sword, drinks himself under the table with him, and is dosed with a potion so Mordecai can read the bopcas' newsletter in his kitchen. 'You two are so dead.'
  • GumGum this book only — A level-5 orc, blood-stained and drunk, who piles the twisted bodies of murdered out-of-town prostitutes outside the gates each morning because nobody else will, and asks the adventurers for help. Her mother, a lady of the night too, was stabbed and crawled home to die on their stoop. Tortured and killed by the city elves within hours of Carl accepting her quest.
  • Heather the Bear this book only — Grimaldi's roller-skating black bear, weeks from retirement when the cataclysm came: now a level-19 boss with a skull for a face, a pink clown hat fused to the bone, worms for claws and a tutu. Carl fights her alone so that Signet can use her blood as the sacrifice; a splat of healing custard frees the old bear from the worms, and she asks with her eyes to be finished.
  • Ifechi — Eighth on the first leaderboard: a human Physicker, level 18, whom Carl does not yet know.
  • Kimaris — A charred glass case from Miss Quill's collection in the magistrate's office, holding a plush armoured man on a black horse, tagged Kimaris: the most valuable thing in Carl's inventory when it is sorted by value.
  • Magistrate Featherfall this book only — The medium skyfowl settlement's magistrate, a dark cleric who wanted more control of the guards and was killed by the feedback of the spell he cast to get it — long before Carl arrives. Found hanging naked and mummified in a bone dreamcatcher, a fetish keeping the krasue bodies safe by night.
  • Manasa this book only — A famed naga singer, cobra-headed, her latest single ranked eighth in the universe — and a Valtay contract: the real Manasa died long ago and a worm drives her body. She swaps production trailers with Carl and Donut so they can shower, and dies by Prince Stalwart's pulse in their place. Her last performance is played a cappella to a silent studio.
  • Miriam Dom — The woman who brought fifteen goats into the dungeon and, by the third floor, has five left, three unchanged, one an armoured biped and one a hellspawn familiar; a human Shepherd, fifth on the leaderboard.
  • Miss Quill this book only — Level-30 skyfowl 'assistant to the Magistrate,' keeper of three hundred beanie babies and the gate to Featherfall's office, granddaughter of the Over City's royal family and the real power in the settlement: a mage with a forgery spell, a dead husband for a battery, an army of krasue, and a three-generation genocide spell two nights from completion. Killed by three sticks of dynamite hidden in her own shelves.
  • Princess D'nadia — A Saccathian — a Sac — princess of the small Prism kingdom and regular on Danger Zone: tentacle-faced, outspoken, a fan of Carl and Donut, and Manasa's oldest friend. Condemns the Skull Empire on air the night her friend is killed.
  • Pustule — Level-30 hobgoblin proprietor of Hobgobs and Boom Sticks on the Silk Road: a weeping sore on her cheek, a unicorn T-shirt, excellent hearing, a dead mother who bit the head off a vorpal muskrat, and tables of goblin and hobgoblin dynamite, smoke bombs, detonators and claymore-like mines. Sells him hob-lobbers and smoke curtains and licks his boom jug.
  • Quan Ch — An Imperial Security Trooper, level 15 on the third floor, who calls Carl and Donut fucking assholes in the quest chat, is blocked by Donut, survives the wild-magic burst with his own gear turned against him, and opens the one Celestial box Borant cannot veto.
  • Quint — The Desperado Club's pharmacist: a level-75 half-djinn, half garbage-scowl — an opossum head on a small tornado — and a former crawler who chose it as a race. Mordecai's old friend and supplier. Advises Carl and Donut not to make a deal on the tenth floor.
  • Remex the Grand this book only — Miss Quill's late husband and the magistrate before Featherfall, yanked back from death as a Soul Leech Capacitor — a featherless, smoking skyfowl huddled above the swordsmen's warehouse, storing the soul power of everything that dies in town. Not a lich, not a boss, a bereft minion, and once a crawler: 'a tenner.' He has to tell the whole story before he is allowed to end.
  • Ringmaster Grimaldi — Redstone Grimaldi, dwarf ringmaster of the Over City's beloved travelling circus, transformed by Scolopendra's cloud into a level-85 Pestiferous Vine filling the centre ring of his own big top — and, through spores and worms, keeping his transformed family alive and obedient. An Elite and a city boss; the love of Signet's life. Carl poisons him, un-poisons him, and talks to him from the inside.
  • Ripper Wonton — Host of Danger Zone, a disgustingly cute Setonix — a quokka — in an orange Fred-from-Scooby-Doo scarf, fair to his guests and furious at his friend's murder. His director Evo is a Soother, a glowing, hairless race whose likeness turns up in Earth's alien stories; the Null, Evo says, are the ones humans called the Grays. The show's round table is where Carl gives the speech.
  • Scolopendra — The monster at the bottom of the volcano in the Over City's founding story, whose nine-tier poison cloud transformed ninety per cent of the kingdom; named, never seen. Every mold lion, clown and city-elf superstition on the third floor traces back to the cataclysm.
  • The 201st Security Group this book only — A doomsday cult of banished city elves in fake military uniforms who worship the skyfowl as angels of Apito the Oak Mother and believe Donut — wearer of an oakwood anklet — is the Oak Fell, the antichrist. Twelve, then nine. Their champion Vicente loses his head to a Magic Missile; the rest burn outside their own temple.
  • Tsarina Signet — A level-60 Elite of the Over City — half naiad, half high elf, naked but for a thong and a skin of living tattoos that are her Blood-Magic battle squad. Star of the scripted drama Vengeance of the Daughter; runaway to Grimaldi's circus; the bastard daughter of a high-elf king with business on the Hunting Grounds. She tries to bleed Carl for a spell before she trusts him.
  • Tucker this book only — A stuffy human stand-up comedian on the Danger Zone panel who objects to a pet on the panel and is called Butler for half an hour. Sides with the kua-tin, warns Carl that advocating sedition is a crime, and is told to shut the fuck up by a princess.
Book 3 — The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook 48
  • Allister — Author of the Cookbook's 13th edition, whose notes correct the earlier recipes: the fifteen-second inventory wait is gone, backpacks still keep explosives stable — until Forkith's note beneath it says they only slow the loss.
  • Astrid — A level-125 Bloodlust Sprite with cardiovascular magic — 'one of the most metal things ever' — who hovers over Donut at the Desperado Club on behalf of management, refunds four hundred of five hundred gold and grants complimentary security. The club's assistant manager.
  • Azin — Author of the Cookbook's 17th edition, who noted that an NPC you can kill and who regenerates in minutes has something on them or knows something important.
  • Babababoons this book only — 'A standard earth baboon crossed with the population from a Florida jail drunk tank' — the AI is proud of this one — in ripped T-shirts, the first mobs seen in stage two of the DTs and the first inside a transit station.
  • Bin the producer this book only — A grey who produces Planet Beautiful: he began it alone to record the cultures being erased, and now Titan wants ratings, an AI writes the scripts, and he is being punished for succeeding.
  • Bomo — The other cretin bodyguard from the Desperado Club, a seven-foot rock creature in a tuxedo who reports that the Sledge paid for Donut's protection spell himself — 'He buy spell with own money' — and later buys a shield spell of his own: 'I cast smack protect.'
  • Chaco — Host of the Prize Carousel: a winged, wolf-headed Song Bard, level 66, 'giver-of-prizes, slayer of gods, former Crawler champion,' in a checkered leisure suit. Mordecai throws a chair at him on sight. 'I was just doing what his manager told me to do. If I hadn't done it, he'd have died. And then we'd all have lost her. We'd have lost Odette.'
  • Coolie — Author of the Cookbook's 19th edition, who wrote the book's deity notes: three kinds of summoning, all fatal to the summoner. 'Only idiots deal with deities.'
  • Dismember this book only — The war mage in the third car of the Dismemberment Limited, silver-haired and elf-looking though he says he is not, who has eaten six parties and needs eight more iterations 'and you'll know exactly what we are.' Beheaded through Donut's Hole spell mid-monologue. Every named train, Carl guesses from the recap, has one of his kind.
  • Donita Grace this book only — A crawler on Carl's chat who could not tell a colour from a name ('The Fulvous line is a subway'), and whose last message came from station 24: 'Millions of them.'
  • Drakea — Author of the Cookbook's 22nd edition and its most prolific annotator: a crawler of the final Naga-run season whose notes — where to read safely, what the Nagas patched, a vow of wrath from the other side of the veil — are, Carl finds, borderline unhinged and a comfort.
  • Dreks this book only — Level-6 demonic babies in packs of fifty at Sirin Station, who cannot open a sliding door until one of them can; scraped to paste by a Protective Shell cast on a moving train, along with a hedgehog ogre called a Psycho Sticker.
  • Eva Sigrid — Katia's friend from the university in Reykjavik — an economics professor who ate lunch with her — who went into the dungeon with her, stabbed the man who grabbed her by the arm — he died of it — and joined Brynhild's Daughters. A half-Nagini, half-orc Nimblefoot Enforcer with four arms, two sabers and skulls for thirteen kills by the fourth floor; Hekla's lieutenant, and a former patient of hers.
  • Fire Brandy this book only — Fire(wo)man of the Nightmare Express: a level-75 Lesser Demon MILF sealed in the boiler, giving birth every five minutes for sixty days, one in ten thousand viable, the rest becoming the Sheol Bricks the train burns. A German accent, two and then three living children, a contract she takes seriously, and — once Tizquick tells her about his daughter — the memory of a boat and a castle and other children who never came back. She drives her train into the abyss.
  • Fleshers this book only — Skins torn from fallen soldiers by a ninth-floor war-mage spell, sentient, looking for bones; hundreds of them slap at a gangway chock on the Dismemberment Limited. A Flesher that finds a skeleton becomes a Symbiote — Levi — and each resleeving makes the next one smarter.
  • Forkith — Author of the Cookbook's 20th edition, an Urgyle Sapper who reached at least the eleventh floor, annotated the whole book, taught readers how to append notes to passages, and mourns his sister Barkith.
  • Gore-Gore this book only — Ochre line engineer, a ManTauR — a man's body with a second torso and pair of arms where the neck should be, blue Braveheart paint, Wolverine claws — level 40, an adherent of Grull, who explains the abyss gate to 'Princess Donut' and then, told who crashed his train, fights as a neighbourhood boss. Electrocuted on the third rail with a war god ten seconds from arriving. The mantaurs are the last employees to 'hold the faith.'
  • Growler Gary — Shade Gnoll bartender of the Downward Dog at the interdiction depot, level 25, held at his own door by an invisible wall while Jumping Jen-Jen called him a coward and died. An indestructible NPC — a Cookbook tell — whose left hands start the rapid-response carts. Killed fourteen times for his left hands, and twice more when the carts come up a pair short; after the fifth, told why; 'Do your best to make sure it doesn't hurt.'
  • Gwendolyn Duet — A voice in the crawlers' chat at the end of the fourth floor, taking Carl's side when the stairwell stations erupt: 'The bomber guy warned all of you dumbasses. Fall back to the train lines.'
  • Herot — Author of the Cookbook's 16th edition, whose long essay at the back of the book — the 'Worn Path Method' — argues that quests and puzzles go easier when you deliberately break the fourth wall and wake the NPCs.
  • Ji-Hoon this book only — A level-21 Knife Sharpener, twenty-five, who put a backstab dagger into Donut on the Desperado dance floor while a companion stunned the guards. Donut's Cockroach skill held, and he died on the floor with his throat slashed: Donut's first skull.
  • Jikininki — The Tangle's janitor ghouls: seven-foot, chattering, in conductor's suits, who leave you alone if you don't bleed, litter or trespass. They board at station 12, swarm the wrecks at the bottom of the abyss, and are generated at 12 by a soul crystal — the word 'ghoul' on this floor covers them, the Festering, Blister and Wrath kinds, and worse.
  • Levi the Seventh this book only — Driver of the Dismemberment Limited: a Troll Flesher wearing a hobgoblin skeleton, the seventh iteration of a war-mage spell called You're Not Done Yet, who begs every party not to board and screams for the whole trip. Saved, once, when Carl pulls the war mage's head through a hole.
  • Limp Richard this book only — Mole Man general-store keeper at station 83 with sixteen Earth paperbacks, one missing its ending, who trades five for five Louis L'Amours and later the Battery Fabricator for the rest and a jug of moonshine. 'There are a lot of my kind on this floor… They're all book hogs!'
  • Loita — A kua-tin of the Bloom, formerly Hekla's representative, who claims the Royal Court's account when Katia joins it and takes it when Zev is sent to 'reeducation.' A rebreather instead of a suit, a dahlia pin, and a rule that crawlers get no more snacks.
  • Madison this book only — Iron Tangle Human Resources Associate, level 10: a soccer mom in a white dress and one heel whose description is a divorce, Pilates and a book club, who tells dwarves that overtime is mandatory, invented the gold armband that marks troublemakers as edible, and, Carl suspects, has never seen her apartment. Left at station 60 to wait for Rod; hanged there by the dwarves and gremlins once they understood.
  • Milk — A Cookbook author — sixth edition — whose note on portals Carl reads on the Iron Tangle: 'Portals are hard to understand', dozens of kinds that all work differently, and 'Teleport traps are the worst.'
  • Pierre this book only — Yellow line porter, a Grapple — 'your everyday quarter giant,' a slave race bred down from hill giants — who hands out one suitcase per crawler per line from the Porters' Reward Room in car 10. Number one held lingerie and an invisibility potion; number eight held Literal Fire Ants.
  • Porthus — Porthus the Rogue: the High Elf crawler of the fifteenth season to whom the Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook was first awarded, on the ninth floor, disguised as a blank sketchbook.
  • Princess Formidable — The youngest child of King Rust, sister of Prince Stalwart and Prince Maestro, and Katia's sponsor from the fourth floor: her first gift is one crossbow bolt, 1 of 100, that pauses a god's invulnerability if it hits the eye. 'I'm starting to think the sister isn't a huge fan of her big brother.'
  • Red Cornets this book only — Banshee Station's mobs: skinless, eyeless, human-sized rabbits, a devolved Lepus with an echolocation attack that renders everyone but Mongo Queasy, tapping empty vials of their fix. Cleared for science.
  • Silfa this book only — A fifty-year-old Wisteria Fairy Holistic Healer of Brynhild's Daughters, half Donut's size, who owns a bakery and has two mage daughters in the party. Told to stop healing Katia and to hide in the mantaur's apartment; the bait in Hekla's plan, Carl believes, and the one who tells Carl the party is over.
  • Sinjin — Author of the Cookbook's 15th edition: the sapper's-table recipe for a hobgoblin smoke curtain soaked in healing potion that mass-kills undead.
  • Terminus this book only — Station 433, the 'last transit station' every employee tells you to get off at: one of six station mimics — a city boss, level 90, 23,000 crawler deaths — that swallows the first twenty of Bautista's four hundred like cheese rings, and later, as a railroad crossing on the tracks, is scooped whole into Trainyard E. Cut in half by Grull. Its minions are mouths on centipede legs that double when halved.
  • The Desperado Club cretins — The Desperado Club's level-35 rock-monster bodyguards: Bomo and the Sledge at Carl and Donut's backs, Clay-ton behind Elle with his arms crossed, and two of them stunned by a woman's spell when a dagger goes into Donut.
  • The earlier editions this book only — The twenty-four crawlers whose notes fill the Cookbook: Porthus the Rogue who received it as a blank sketchbook; Forkith, an Urgyle sapper who lost his sister Barkith and asked readers to kill an enemy in her honour; Drakea under the Naga — 'Once lit, a fire is easier to stoke than it is to extinguish'; York on the hive that never meets except in the book; Herot's Worn Path Method; Coolie on deities. Carl is the twenty-fifth.
  • The Kravyad this book only — Not bosses but Human Resources: blue, six-armed naga who hypnotise conductors and porters into a 'pre-production stupor' between shifts, are paid in a dwarf or two a shift, and are lifebound to the employee portal at station 435 — kill one and it closes. Bautista's group's did.
  • The Night Wyrm — A name on a ring: the Enchanted Night Wyrm's Ring of Divine Suffering, Frank Q's revenge, 'for the discerning Crawler Killer', whose owners, Mordecai says, are the first the sixth-floor hunters track down.
  • The Popov brothers — Dmitri and Maxim Popov, two Nodlings — an Illusionist and a Bogatyr — who share ninth place on the leaderboard after Hekla's death, to Donut's outrage.
  • The Sledge — One of two level-35 rock cretins in tuxedos hired as the party's bodyguards at the Desperado Club on the fourth floor, 'about as intelligent as one would expect from someone named Bomo and The Sledge': he dances with Donut on his shoulders, buys her a protection spell with his own money, and ends up in her chat.
  • Tin — Author of the Cookbook's 21st edition, who noticed that the gods and goddesses are Soul Armor — bodies worn by off-world drivers — and could in theory be stripped with an armour-removing spell once their invulnerability is beaten.
  • Tito this book only — Wheel of Fortune croupier at the Desperado casino, a one-toothed human mountain: 'Also, the guy who will stab you.' Nothing! on his wheel is a trapdoor.
  • Tizquick this book only — A Mango line conductor weeping on the floor of station 60 because his little girl was never real. He stays to guide crawlers from line to line, helps Elle find the blown 72, tells Fire Brandy what he learned, and rides the Nightmare into the abyss with her: 'I know how this works.'
  • Tserendolgor — A level-27 Dog Soldier, class Crisper, in a Vietnam-era helmet with ear holes, working a flamethrower at station 36's chokepoints. 'I am not a he.' Donut's instant enemy.
  • Vernon this book only — Yellow line train conductor, a dwarf, level 32, who drinks in the employee break room from station 10 to 435 and does it again: the first NPC to explain the loop — the train resets, he does not — and the duplicating drawing of a wife Carl takes for a made-up phantom. Burned to death by Donut's suitcase of fire ants.
  • Wendita this book only — The Bopca of station 83's Nirula's, talked from 50,000 to 37,500 by Donut and then paid with a coupon; in tears at the upgrades. 'I knew when you talked me into paying my own money it was nothing but a test.'
  • Widget this book only — Grease Gremlin technician at Trainyard E, level 19, Zev-sized under a wrench three times his length, who slides down a chain in a purse to tell the party the station is closed, the ghouls are near critical mass, and there was always an easier way — the Escape Velocity train. Beheaded by a ghoul Donut had already killed once, mid-wave.
  • York — Author of the Cookbook's 10th edition: pages of rambling philosophical essays by someone hive-born and alone, of which the one passage that stays with Carl calls the book a hive of those who will never cross paths except in its pages.